The garden speaks - finding the why of the garden.

To make the garden more effective as a workspace, the garden can speak to its visitors. Signs, symbols and educational materials strategically placed near specific plants or areas to give information on proper care. This direct communication might give a deeper understanding of the garden as an ecosystem and it can encourage visitors to align their actions with permaculture values.

Design brief: helping the garden to communicate and effectively teach guests the deeper background information.

A garden with principles
The a-ha moment came with the Principles anchor point of Looby Macnamara's Design Web. I suddenly realized that that was exactly what the garden was missing! With all volunteers and visitors of the garden I explain how we started, how it is now a year round abundant no-dig polycuture garden with heavily mulched paths and beds. The “what”. And I show people how we started beds with cardboard, how we make natural fertilizers, how the watering systems work, how we create compost and apply mulch: the “how”. The “why” is assumed and I never speak about it.
When I came to Principles in the design process and defined a few for the garden, I came to the realization that all that goes wrong in the garden, is
because of lack of understanding of the why. And permaculture principles are an excellent tool to explain this.